Yoga Nidra For The Winter Blues

This Yoga Nidra is designed to bring warmth and light to the darker months of the year. Through gentle body awareness and soothing visualisations, you’ll be guided into deep rest and inner stillness. It’s a space to release heaviness, restore balance, and reconnect with a quiet sense of peace and renewal within.

Transcript

Welcome everyone to this special yoga nidra for the winter blues.

So the winter is a time when it's really common to start to feel a little less motivated or to feel a little less joyful or happy than we might normally do.

One of the many reasons for this is that we can often still be running at 100 miles an hour in the winter,

Whereas winter is actually a time for us to hibernate and to rest and that's what nature is doing and it's also what we should be doing as well.

But if we're still going about our busyness in our day,

Then it can lead to extra stress and strain on our body and on our mind and it can really start to affect how we're feeling.

So this yoga nidra is here to help you to find some rest and also to maybe find some inner sunshine as well,

Knowing that sunshine can come from the inside as well as the outside.

So just nestling yourselves down in your way of lying for yoga nidra now,

You can lay down on the ground or on your bed or on your yoga mat or anywhere that feels good for you right now.

Doing any last thing that you need to do that's going to make you comfortable,

Maybe a blanket,

Maybe closing the curtains so that you're in a bit of a darker room,

Anything at all,

Even if it's just going to make you 1% more comfortable for this nidra,

Then please do it.

And then once you've settled in your body,

Make any last little final wriggles or movements or adjustments that you need to and then just come to rest,

Just knowing that you don't need to be anywhere else right now,

There's absolutely nothing else you need to be doing and I'm giving you full permission to have this time for yourself to rest.

Whatever's going on for you in your life right now,

Whatever difficulties you're experiencing,

Know that you can lay them to rest just for the next 20 minutes or so as we lay down for yoga nidra.

Take a moment just relaxing your body,

If there's anywhere that's still a little bit tight or a little bit tense,

Just inviting it to let go,

Maybe in your hands and your fingers,

In your shoulders,

In the muscles in your face,

Your jaw,

Even your tongue can relax.

And just start to notice your breath.

When you're ready,

Take a nice big deep inhale through your nose,

Really filling your belly up with breath and when you're full,

Take a long slow exhale out of your mouth,

Really letting all the breath go and then another big inhale through your nose,

Breathe into your belly.

When you're full,

Open your mouth and take a long slow exhale out of the mouth,

Let all the breath out and we'll do one final one here,

So when you're ready,

Nice big inhale through your nose,

Opening the mouth and this time sighing,

Exhale all the breath away and just allow your body to breathe in a normal usual way for you right now,

Maybe feeling more of a sense of relaxation in your body now.

We're going to move our awareness through our body and I want you to start by just noticing and feeling your right hand,

What can you feel in your right hand?

Maybe it feels heavy today or light or tingly maybe or cold and then moving your awareness to your right hand thumb,

Your index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger and your little finger,

And the palm of your right hand,

Your forearm,

And your right elbow,

And your right upper arm and then bring your awareness to your right shoulder,

Just notice what you feel there,

Remember all sensations are welcome,

And the right side of your chest,

And then take a moment just to feel into your heart space,

This is the area around your heart,

Just take a moment to be with this part of your body,

Giving it some attention,

Giving your heart permission to rest,

We feel so much in our life,

So many things happen that can bring up feelings,

Strong feelings for us,

Just take a moment and give your heart permission to have some rest,

To have a break,

Really breathing into that,

And then letting your awareness come down to your belly,

Filling your belly with awareness,

It's okay whatever sensations are here,

We'll continue with the right side,

So your right hip,

And then your right thigh muscle,

And the back of your thigh,

And your right knee,

And the back of your knee,

And your shin,

Your calf,

Your heel,

Your right foot,

Your big toe,

Second,

Third,

Fourth,

Baby toe,

And the whole right side of your body now,

The whole right side,

Bringing your awareness gently to your left hand,

Notice how it feels,

Your thumb,

Your index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Little finger,

Palm of your left hand,

Your forearm,

Your elbow,

Upper arm,

Your left shoulder,

Left side of the chest,

Left thigh muscle,

And the back of your thigh,

And your left knee,

And the back of your knee,

Your shin,

Calf,

Heel,

Left foot,

Big toe,

Second,

Third,

Fourth,

Baby toe,

And the whole left side of your body now,

The whole left side,

And then bringing your awareness to your lower back,

And the middle of your back,

And the top of your back,

And the back of your head,

Crown of your head,

Your forehead,

Left eye,

Right eye,

Left cheek,

Right cheek,

Nose,

Mouth,

Throat,

And ending with your awareness in the space of your heart,

The space of your heart,

And then feeling all of your body,

Having a sense of the whole of your body,

I want you to now imagine that your body is really,

Really cold,

How might it feel to feel really cold in the whole of your body,

Maybe imagining yourself lying down in the snow outside on a cold winter's day,

Can you bring up the sensation of cold in the whole of your body,

And then bringing up the sensation of warmth in your body,

How might it feel to feel really warm and cozy right now,

Maybe imagining yourself lying down on a beach on a hot summer's day,

With the sun shining down on your body,

How might it feel to feel really warm,

And then coming back to the cold,

Feeling cold,

How might it feel to feel really cold in the whole of your body right now,

And then coming back to the warmth one final time,

How might it feel to feel really warm in the whole of your body right now,

And now feeling warmth and cold together at the same time,

How might it feel to feel both together,

Both cold and both warm,

We're now gonna move through a visualization,

For this I want you to begin to imagine yourself standing in a pinewood forest,

You look down towards your feet and your bare feet are touching the earth,

And this gives you a sense of groundedness and of peace,

And it's a warm hot summer's day today,

You begin walking around this beautiful pinewood forest,

And you can smell the scent of the pine and it gives you a sense of relaxation and of groundedness,

You begin walking around touching the trees,

Feeling their bark on your hands,

Seeing the sunlight slowly glistening through the gaps in the trees,

It's a beautiful day today and you feel an openness and a freedom in your heart,

You also feel a sense of joy,

A summer's day always makes you feel happy,

You continue walking through this pinewood forest,

And this space is very familiar to you,

You've been here many times before,

You continue walking through taking time to be with the nature,

You're feeling very present and mindful today,

The ground beneath you slowly starts to become quite sandy as you continue your walk,

Until you come across a sand dune,

And in the distance you can hear the ocean waves,

And you have a nice sensation on your feet as the sand slowly moves through your toes,

And the sand is quite warm which gives you a pleasant feeling inside,

You continue walking through these sand dunes,

And the sound of the ocean is becoming louder and louder as you get nearer,

And you start to walk uphill up quite a steep sand dune,

Until you reach the peak,

And from there you see the beautiful big ocean,

It's quite still today but the waves are slowly moving onto the shore,

Just seeing the wide expanse of the ocean like this gives you a sense of joy,

A sense of expansion,

An awareness that you're so much more than just your physical body and your mind,

You begin walking towards the ocean,

And there's no one else here today,

On this warm summer's day you've got this beach all to yourself,

You take off all of your clothes,

You begin walking into the ocean,

You dive under a wave and your whole body starts to float,

You feel so much freedom in your heart,

A feeling that you've not felt for such a long time,

Swimming over and under the waves,

And the sea is fairly warm for you today,

And you decide to get out of the ocean after some time swimming,

And this time in the ocean has made you feel like a new person,

As if the ocean has cleansed you,

You stand in the sunshine with your wet body and you allow the sun to slowly dry you off,

It's such a warm day today that it doesn't take long for your body to dry,

You stand smiling at the sun,

Enjoying the sun's rays on your body,

Knowing that they're doing you so much good,

And after you've dried off you put your clothes back on,

You begin walking back through the sand dunes,

You slowly make your way back into the Pinewood Forest,

You walk to your favourite spot in the Pinewood Forest,

This is a spot where you've been so many times before,

You decide to sit down under some of the trees,

You cross your legs and you enter meditation,

Your body feels so relaxed after being in the ocean,

You feel a real sense of calm and a real sense of peace within your body,

And you enter the deepest meditation that you've entered in a very long time,

One where your mind feels so clear,

And this is where you come to rest,

And we leave that space and we come back to here and now,

Here with your body laying down on the ground,

Take a moment and feel your body once again,

Feel how it's changed,

From when we began this yoga nidra,

And this yoga nidra is slowly coming towards a close,

If you'd like to lay here longer you can lay as long as you need,

If you're ready to move then start to make some little movements in your fingers and your toes,

Let a bit more breath come into your lungs,

Make some little wriggles,

Some movements,

When you're ready take a really big inhale and reach and stretch your hands and your arms over your head,

Stretching from your fingers to your toes,

And then bending your knees when you're ready and give yourself a big squeeze,

And in your own time rock over to one side and there's no rush,

Come up to sitting,

And enjoying the rest of your day.

Namaste.